


The Path of Darkness

by nyawer92



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, Canon Compliant, Drama, F/M, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Memory Loss, Pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 17:21:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20642858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyawer92/pseuds/nyawer92
Summary: She didn’t need to be in a place like this, in a shabby inn with peeling walls, batting her eyelashes at men who didn’t deserve her. She didn’t need a dark cloud hanging over her head like that. She deserved to be protected and cherished by someone who saw and accepted her for her strength.Now when he thought about it, her future was bright and full of possibilities, whereas his future only had Itachi and his blood smearing his hands.





	The Path of Darkness

Sasuke always held a special disdain for certain establishments. He often brushed it off and pinned it down to his strict upbringing. No prestigious clan should associate with such establishments, even if he realized that most notable Uchiha men would probably have frequented them under the cloak of darkness. 

Sighing heavily he turned to look at his companion. The sharp toothed, white-haired youth grinned salaciously at him in response. 

‘Shall we?’

He shot him a look that said You’re serious right? 

His companion simply shrugged and walked in. 

The serving ladies looked up and shuffled about. Everywhere else, Sasuke could see separate rooms with serving girls clad in yakutas serving other men seated on cushions in front of a low table. He saw them drinking and the girls twittering around them, keeping them entertained. He saw two girls with their hair pinned up skillfully, leading the men to a separate section of the establishment beyond a partition made of sturdy bamboo.

Sasuke let out a disgusted sigh. He also spotted a pair of burly men seated near the door, eyeing the serving girls impishly.

A middle aged looking matron in a yakuta came bustling over, smiling at them through her stern mouth and sharp cheekbones. She reminded Sasuke of a viper as she guided them to their seats. She then snapped her fingers and the nearest serving girl walked over to them, a brown circular tray in hand. She took one look at Sasuke and fumbled with her tray.

When the girl was done spluttering their order she noisily bustled out. 

‘What is it with women and their tripping over their words because of you?’ grumbled the sharp-toothed youth.

‘Suigestsu’ Sasuke spoke sharply, effectively shutting the man up. 

The girl announced her return by tripping over her yakuta and placed two warm cups of tea and a steaming kettle in front of them. She was about to bow out trying to make eye contact with Sasuke when Suigetsu caught her wrist.

‘Excuse me ojo-san. Could you tell us if you’ve seen any suspicious looking groups around here?’ 

She looked at him with wide confused eyes. 

‘He wants to know’ he pointed at Sasuke.

The effect was instantaneous. She stammered and fumbled and told them of a group called the ‘Skull Faction’ operating in the area. She then tumbled to the side, knocking over another serving girl and scurrying out of sight.

Chuckling Suigetsu turned to his seatmate. ‘Maybe you should meet up with her when her shift ends’ he winked devilishly.

Sasuke had sat still throughout the entire atrocious display. He couldn’t care less for the airheaded women. He knew the effect he had on them; he just couldn’t bring himself to care about the simpering and the sighing. It set his teeth on edge. 

However he blatantly ignored Suigetsu’s comment when he heard a fake tinkling laugh reverberating in the room. 

It had sounded vaguely familiar. 

He turned towards the voice and saw a tall, dark haired woman with her back towards him, chatting up with the burly men sitting in the corner. She wore a deep red Yakuta with her long dark hair sweeping like a curtain over her back. 

He frowned slightly and turned away. He must have spaced out trying to tune out the ridiculous scene around him. 

The woman in question got up and wobbled slightly over to the serving section where the sharp eyed matron stood observing her girls. 

She said something to her and gestured to the men. Sasuke could only see half of her face and yet he felt something akin to anxiety settling in the pit of his stomach. 

He brushed it off and moved to stand up. 

‘We’re leaving already?’

‘Hn. We need to find out about this Skull Faction’ 

‘Okay, okay’

They made their way towards the door however Sasuke took one last look at the dark haired woman with his sharingan blaring this time. One look and he confirmed what he has thought all along.

Frowning slightly he turned away from the establishment. 

Sasuke and Suigetsu spent the next hour interrogating anyone who knew about the Skull Faction. The villagers were reluctant to divulge any information however they did come across some low level ninjas of the Faction. Suigetsu cheekily defeated them, while Sasuke simply rolled his eyes at them. 

They managed to come across one of the faction headquarters and get the sword Suigetsu was so desperately after. Sasuke wanted the whole thing to be over soon, so he indulged his companion in his nonsensical quest to get Zabuza’s old sword. 

The two had managed to swipe the sword from its current (now former) owner, a pompous fool and collector who never knew how to wield it properly.

Sasuke scoffed at the sight of the man and it took a mere Katon, one shot of Chidori and whatever Suigetsu does with his water trick to get the fool to sweat buckets and hand the huge blade over to them. 

The whole journey was tedious thought Sasuke but begrudgingly necessary.

They settled in a nearby inn, tired and covered in grime, Suigetsu retired immediately but Sasuke was still restless. His mind wandered to the woman chatting up with those men. 

It had turned out that they were from the faction. The gang comprised of lowly shinobi turned thugs to nukenin trying to score some gold. He found it simply disdainful, besmirching the name of shinobi like that. Not that you would know what that is, a voice whispered out in his head. Shaking away the thoughts, Sasuke frowned deeply and made his way out of the inn.

‘Where are you going?’ Suigetsu asked, emerging from the restroom. 

‘Out’ he spoke coldly and left. 

He strode through the street activating his sharingan and tracing the faint chakra he caught. The trail led him to a modest inn at the outskirts of the village. He shunshined towards her room and knocked. 

The woman’s expression changed rapidly from shock, fear, outrage and confusion. Sasuke marveled at how quickly she schooled her features to relax and maintain her façade but with his sharingan blazing, he didn’t think it was necessary when he could see through it all. 

‘Sakura’ he said simply

‘Sasuke’ she responded tight lipped.

He tiled his heard to the side, narrowing his eyes. 

She sighed, dropped her henge and invited him inside. 

‘What are you doing here?’ she spoke lowly giving him a calculated gaze. 

‘Hn. I should ask you the same’

‘I’m not following you, if that’s what you’re wondering’ tracing a finger over the kunai he knew she kept hidden in her sleeve. 

‘Naruto’ 

‘Back in the village. I’m on a solo mission’ 

‘I thought Konoha shinobi moved in squads’

‘Unless the mission required a specific skill set’ 

Sasuke detected a slight bitterness in her voice.

Then it clicked. It was one of those missions. 

He had heard kunoichi were tasked with something of the sort, they even had special classes for this sort of thing at the academy.

Sighing, he knew it was a mistake to pursue this. 

‘You were speaking to those men from the Faction’

She balked. Clearly she hadn’t expected him to know that. 

‘How do you-‘

‘I know they’re called the Skull Faction, they operated under the leadership of a man named Hishomoru, a nukenin from Ame. Probably a Jounin level ninja. He took Zabuza’s sword so I engaged him in battle and took him out’ 

‘Why did- How-What?’

He sighed.

‘Go tell that to your Hokage. The mission is done. He’s dead anyway. It’s of no consequence to me what you do with the information. At this point it’s not my concern’ 

‘Why are you telling me this?’

He shrugged. 

‘It seems tedious to know something like that.’

‘What’s this about Zabuza’s sword? It was placed next to his grave’ 

‘They took it’ 

He saw her ball up her fists and grit her teeth.

‘Who do they think they are!’

‘He was one the Swordsmen of the Mist. It was valuable’ 

‘They weren’t there to see him-‘

‘No. Zabuza’s dead. Take the information to the Hokage, tell her it’s been dealt with. The Faction won’t harm Tazuna or any of them’ 

Sakura looked at him for a long time.

‘This is so surreal. You show up out of the blue in the last place I expected and hand over information so readily. What the hell happened? Why are you even here? You didn’t care about Tazuna’s family or Zabuza. I heard you killed Orochimaru…is it true?’ she practically whispered.  
He didn’t answer any of it though, simply stared at her with a bored expression. 

‘Say I report this to the Hokage, she would want to know how I dealt with an entire faction!’

‘They’re not that strong, you could take them out’

She frowned. 

‘How would you know that?’

‘Kabuto likes to keep tabs with those cards of his’

She rolled her eyes and mumbled what sounded like ‘of course’

‘So what you’re helping Konoha now?’

‘No. I-’ he hesitated. Why did he readily approach her anyway?

Was it because the sight of her, even in a henge brought out something he had long forgotten? The need to protect. Or was it that he couldn’t stand her being on a solo mission that required her skills as a kunoichi? 

He decided it was both. He couldn’t let Sakura sully herself disgracefully for a piece of worthless information. It was of no consequence to him who lived or died, he already had his goal mapped out. 

He found Sakura completely out of place at the tea house. He had heard from Kabuto how she had become Tsunade’s protégé and was training as a medic nin. Now when he thought about it, her future was bright and full of possibilities, whereas his future only had Itachi and his blood smearing his hands. 

She didn’t need to be in a place like this, in a shabby inn with peeling walls, batting her eyelashes at men who didn’t deserve her. She didn’t need a dark cloud hanging over her head like that. She deserved to be protected and cherished by someone who saw and accepted her for her strength.

Sighing, he activated his Sharingan once more.

‘Sakura look at me’ he said, stepping close to her and gently placed a finger below her chin, tipping her head upwards, somehow he could tell she knew what would happen. He needed her to forget. 

‘Sasuke, please’ she whispered. He always hated that about her, latching onto him when she knew he couldn’t give her what she wanted. 

He wasn’t what she expected him to be, which was why he left in the first place. Nothing could distract him from his path, no matter how tempting it was to challenge Naruto or roll his eyes at Kakashi’s attempts to parent him or fall into Sakura’s waiting arms. 

It wasn’t his destiny. He didn’t walk the path of light. He always knew that. 

‘You will give the information to the hokage, you will tell her you took them out, when they resorted to force. You will forget this meeting. You will forget seeing me here’ His sharingan blazed furiously and he saw her eyes flickering out of focus and glazing over. 

She closed her eyes falling into deep slumber and he laid her gently on her small bed. He took one last look at her, memorizing her now chiseled features with his sharingan and scarpered into the night. 

He will not look back. 

He had already severed his ties. Showing hints of anything else now would only deter him from his ambition. 

At this point, he realized, he can’t afford the luxury of happiness, it was too high a price to pay.

**Author's Note:**

> Set during the pre-war arc, Sasuke is set out to kill his brother and while gathering his team, he comes across remnants of his past.  
Just a little snippet floating around in my brain, there's still more to be written and a lot more to update which is what I'm currently working on.  
Let me know what you think!


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